Day Six.

Today was an eventful day for little Elliot. When we first got to the NICU, he was sound asleep and no matter what we did, we couldn't get him to wake up. The nurse let us put the top on his isolette up for awhile, so it was our first chance to kiss his little nose and get up close to him. It was wonderful!
Right before we were planning to leave to go grocery shopping, though, Aaron changed his diaper and he started freaking out. Nothing we did (wrapping him up like a mummy, giving him his pacifier, "rocking" him, or even the sweeties drops that he loves so much) would calm him down. We soon found out why, though- when he spit up a massive amount of bright green bile. The tube in his mouth is supposed to suck all of that yuckiness out of his belly, but Elliot had managed to pull the tube out a little so it wasn't working anymore. Once the nurse repositioned the tube and sucked out several ounces, he was wide eyed and content for awhile before falling back asleep again.
His surgery has been moved to Thursday or Friday, most likely. Since almost all of his bowel is back into his belly, Elliot is starting to swell up and is pretty uncomfortable most of the time. He has the STRONGEST suck reflex ever and is recognizing when he is hungry, but since he can't eat yet he gets pretty frustrated. I think he'll be really happy when he heals up from his surgery and is finally ready to start eating!
We're heading back to the NICU in an hour or so for a parents meeting/dinner and then to spend a little more time with Elliot before heading back for the night. I'm hoping to meet some other NICU parents at the meeting. And tonight could be interesting because I'm going to try to go six hours without pumping- the lactation consultant told me that as long as I'm pumping every 2 hours throughout the day, I should be able to last for six-hour stretch of sleep at night. This would be GREAT because I feel like a slave to the pump and getting up every two hours all night long gets old really fast. I'm not sure how I'll be able to do it without exploding, though. The nurse said to just wait until my boobs wake me up. We'll see how it goes!
And here are the new pictures from today:




Kisses from Daddy.